He offered a lopsided grin that sent her heart into spasm. “It’s actually a legume.”
She disguised her cardiac gymnastics with a frown.
“Another type of plant,” he added.
Aria snorted and opened the jar. Instantly, Mai’s long nose twitched. She hopped over and put her little front paws up on the edge of it. Aria let it go, and it tipped over on the table. Mai’s front half disappeared inside.
“Hey. I wanted to put that on my bagel,” Lucas protested as he popped it into the toaster oven.
“Still could. She washes her paws all the time.” Aria kept her gaze on the shrew. Easier on her heart.
“Yeah. With hertongue.” He reopened the cupboard. “Never mind. There’s another jar.”
Aria extracted the shrew from the jar and placated her with a large dollop on the table. Then she tried a fingerful. It stuck to the roof of her mouth and tasted a little too sweet, but it was bagel worthy.
Lucas sat down opposite her and raised a brow. “I did mention she used her tongue, didn’t I?” He pushed his freshly opened jar toward her.
Aria shrugged. “Her tongue is as clean as mine.” To prove her point, she extended the part in question toward him, and wiggled it around before pulling it back into her mouth.
Silence from his side of the table. Aria raised her gaze from her bagel and stopped breathing.
His eyes were almost pure emerald as he stared at her. Intense. Riveting, in fact.
Then he blinked and applied fierce concentration to spreading the peanut butter over his bagel. Aria took a deep breath as her ridiculous heart leaped around in her chest. She decided that being too low on crystal dust was messing with both her brain and body.
She cleared her throat. “So. How long have you known this trader friend of yours?”
. “Years. He’s helped me move merchandise.” His voice sounded unusually hoarse.
“He deals in stolen crap?”
Lucas’s knife paused in the spreading before resuming. “Not usually. But he knows where I get my stuff from. And yes, it is stolen.”
Dammit.She hadn’t meant to sound so judgmental. “I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay. I get it.”
“No, I was just curious. I protected those bastards, Lucas. What I was doing was far worse than stealing.”
He shot her a look with eyes still chaotically swirling green against the black. She hadn’t noticed them do that before.
But then he gave a little nod and shrugged one shoulder. “We all do what we have to—to survive.”
“Yeah, well, I might have to apprentice under you. Because my bodyguard days are likely done.” Why didn’t that strike terror into her heart? She’d seen what happened to Dragons without resources. Yet the thought of leaving her chosen profession left her with something she hadn’t expected.
A sense of relief.
“Did you really like guarding those schmucks?” he asked.
She had no idea what a schmuck was, but she answered honestly. “No. I didn’t.”
“Then maybe it was time for a career change, anyway.”
Aria had just opened her mouth to reply when, with a poof of flame, Sparkle appeared in the kitchen.
Sparks landed on the tablecloth and Mai scampered up Aria’s arms to hide beneath her hair.
Lucas cursed and blotted the glowing embers out with his hands. “Dammit, Sparkle. Betsy’ll charge me for that.
